New Toronto Add-Ons
The latest gala/special presentation additions to the Toronto Film Festival are as follows in order of excitement/anticipation levels: Jason Reitman‘s Up In The Air (middle-aged ennui air-miles movie with George Clooney), Jean-Pierre Jeunet‘s MicMacs, Fatih Akin‘s Soul Kitchen, Joe Dante‘s The Hole (Joe Dante!), Tobe Hooper‘s The Damned United, Dagur Kari‘s The Good Heart (with Paul Dano and Brian Cox)
Joe Dante’s Explorers is a film I still hold near and dear to my heart.
Wow, new films from Joe Dante and Tobe Hooper. Feels like 1986 all over again. And yeah, love me some Joe Dante. Even Small Soldiers.
Went to the Joe Dante talk in Edinburgh in June and got to ask the great man a question. One of the nicest people ever to work in the film industry. He even signed my DVDs of Gremlins and Innerspace. He showed some footage from The Hole and it looks great. Javier Navarrete (Pan’s Labyrinth) has taken over from the late, great Jerry Goldsmith.
@actionman: At last you and I find something to agree on. But Joe Dante hates Explorers and says it was career suicide doing that film after Gremlins.
While having new films from both Joe Dante and Tobe Hooper in the same festival sounds pretty damn exciting, I think Wells actually meant to type *TOM* Hooper. And also I think he means The Damned *United* which is Brit sports drama starring Michael Sheen.
I would also much rather see the Tobe Hooper film.
http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony/thedamnedunited/
It’s finally got a US release date. Thank fuck. Can’t wait for this one – the book is outstanding and Clough was a larger-than-life presence. Cast is excellent so hopes are high.
Indeed, I saw the trailer for The Damned United the other nite — had no idea it existed — and it’s on my must-see list now.
“And yeah, love me some Joe Dante. Even Small Soldiers.”
But even Looney Tunes: Back in Action?
I keed, of course. Love the Dante, too.
markj — explorers is a childhood classic/favorite. that sucks that dante doesn’t like it. it might have tanked at the box office but the film has a huge cult following (which I’m sure he’s aware of by now) and it’s just a sweet little pre-teen adventure. movies like explorers never get made anymore, which is a shame. some dip-shit will probably remake it in the next few years…
oh, and I remember really enjoying small soldiers when I saw it in the theater. dante also did that cool little flick Matinee, which was a lot of retro-fun.
“But Joe Dante hates Explorers and says it was career suicide doing that film after Gremlins.”
Nonsense. ‘Gremlins 2: The New Batch’ was career suicide.
But, holy fuck, what glorious career suicide it was.
Joe Dante’s programming & appearing at the New Beverly again starting next week — http://tinyurl.com/2uzcoz
Get it right…TOM Hooper- who directed the great HBO mini-series “John Adams – not Tobe Hooper for crying – and laughing – out loud, is the director of “The Damned United”…and he’s listed on imdb as the director of a new version of Steinbeck’s ‘East of Eden”..interesting and promising.
And 3-D movie about a portal to “hell” by Joe Dante??!!…IMAX here I come!!!
@ actionman: Totally with you on Explorers, it’s one of the few films that really captures the innocence of childhood. Explorers had a rushed post-production and was basically taken away from Dante before he had a chance to finish it. That was his main beef with it.
Love Explorers – which I haven’t seen in ages.
And love Gremlins 2. I don’t know how many people have even seen it but it’s one of the most subversive, goof sequels ever made.
You can watch it and easily imagine the desperate suits begging Dante to do the sequel to the point where they’d sign off on any crazy whim he comes up with.
A flasher gremlin? Uh, sure.
A salad gremlin? Sure, whatever. We need a tentpole. Christopher Lee collecting snot tissues? Okay, okay – just as long as you bring back Zack and Phoebe!
Any movie that can put Paul Bartel and Hulk Hogan in a scene together couldn’t possibly be anything but genius, could it?